Europe lends support to judicial reform

Parliamentary discussions on the planned reforms to the judiciary have been met with applause from the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), a body within the framework of the Council of Europe (CoE).

The commission has issued a report about Turkey, in which it underlined Turkey’s need for judicial reform. According to ECRI, Turkey took a great step by approving a constitutional amendment package in September of last year that sought to make up for some defects in the Constitution. The commission said new steps should be taken to put the content of the constitutional amendment package into effect. The commission also praised Turkey for the bold steps it has taken on the path toward judicial reform. Also last week EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee Co-chairwoman Helene Flautre said she strongly supports judicial reform as a first step in addressing the long-neglected problems of the Turkish judicial system. Flautre asserted that judicial reform should be put into effect “in the shortest possible time” to speed up trials, prevent the imprisonment of people without convictions and once again build confidence in the judicial system.